At one point the terms were granted full trademark protections, but as the terms became generizied, they start losing their protection.

This, like the the myth about being legally obligated to actively protect one's trademark, is an apparent misunderstanding. At most the owner of such a trademark might find it more difficult to press a frivolous suit than would the owner of a trademark with a much less commonly used name. Besides, it's free advertising, so they don't lose anything but the chance of obscurity.

On the subject of DSBSD, I'm in agreement with the Stupid Idiot.I doubt there's anything sinister here, just a lack of sense.

And the other type of trademark is a generic trademark... or linux for unix-like os's

"Damn Small Linux" isn't generic, and is trademarked. "Linux" isn't generic, either, and is trademarked. Torvalds set up a separate entity to protect his trademark. I don't know where you came up with the idea that "Linux" is generic and can be applied to other Unix-like operating systems, but that's patently (pardon the pun) false:http://www.linuxmark.org/

mikshaw:

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Besides, it's free advertising...

No, it isn't. Not when something is purported to be something it isn't -- e.g., a generic MP3 player isn't an iPod. You're not advertising for Apple if in an advertisement you were to call Rio players iPods, you're in effect diluting (and infringing) on Apple's IP because you're using their name (edit: trademark) to sell others' products.

--------------"It felt kind of like having a pitbull terrier on my rear end."-- meo (copyright(c)2008, all rights reserved)

First, using a word like "Damn" isn't generic to creating a small distro, so it's an obvious marketing ploy to capitalize off of DSL.

Second, their claims are absurd. Despite being in the preliminary stages of development, they claim to support "older machines as well as modern machines," cater to "developers, system administrators, and average users," and provide "everything you need" ....all with 50 megs.

Edit: Also, it's a "powerful work-horse capable of coping with massive work-loads while remaining fast, ultra-stabile & rock solid." (...except that it's in its preliminary testing stage...with "no official release yet"..) First pilot, 0.191 :"This version doesn’t include any X system yet or any of the goals listed on the website"